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Sally Ride’s stuff goes to the Smithsonian

Sally Ride wore this helmet as navigator on T-38 flights during her time in the astronaut corps. Image by Eric Long, Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum is now home to a collection of personal possessions and papers that belonged to Sally Ride, the first American woman in space.

The items shed light on Ride as both a public figure and a private person and include items from her childhood, her academic career and her career as an astronaut.

You’ll be able to see some of the artifacts in the Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall in July 2016.

Sally Ride showed an early interest in science, so her parents gave her this small telescope and also a microscope. Her sister remembers their using it often. Ride went on to earn a Ph.D. in physics and astrophysics before becoming an astronaut. Image by Eric Long, Smithsonian Institution